Classical Studies

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AnacreonGli amori di Anacreonte o sia collezione delle sue odi di amoroso argomento Tradotte dal conte Xaverio Broglio d'AjanoPlace Not Identified Publisher Unstated 1790 First Edition Softcover Very Good Square 8vo 2 p.l. & 92 pages; Very scarce first edition of Count Xaverio Broglio d'Ajano's verse translation of odes by Anacreon into Italian. It was probably printed somewhere in Italy around 1790, though there is no date printed. It probably was made in the Marche, near Macerata, where the translator was a Senator in the Repubblica romana. (The date comes from a catalogue entry in the database of the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche - ICCU). This handsome octavo version was printed to celebrate the wedding of Carlo Teodoro Antici de' marchesi di Pesci and donna Marianna Mattei de' duchi di Giove - which does contribute some element of precision to the estimate of its date of issue. It is bound in jolly contemporary wrappers with a printed floral pattern. This is a large copy in original condition, with large margins - at least a few fore-edges show deckles. A few leaves of the high-quality laid paper have a blue tinge; 220 years ago, this may have been printed on special blue paper. The long-lived translator, born a Count in 1749, had to wait nearly forty years to see a regularly published version of this text (published in small 24mo format: (Verona : tipografia di Pietro Bisesti, 1829). This rare undated first edition from about 1790 is not in OCLC, none in the British Library, none in the French Bibliotheque Nationale. ICCU database locates two copies: (Accademia Georgica - Treia; and Biblioteca internazionale La Vigna - Vicenza). A clean unmarked copy, with some splitting to the gutter hinge of the front wrapper, but still attached. Handsome and rare. ; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
Price:
199.95 USD

Bernhardy, GottfriedGrundriss der griechischen Litteratur mit einem vergleichenden Ueberblick der Römischen - Two VolumesHalle Eduard Anton 1836 First Edition Hardcover Very Good 8vo 530; xxiv, 1072 pages; 1836/1845 Two volumes, bound in contemporary (publisher's?) black pebbled boards backed with brown ribbed cloth -- titles lettered in gilt on the spines along with thick gilt rules dividing the spines into panels. Edges of the leaves sprinkled red. Moderate shelfwear, scattered foxing (mostly to the first and last leaves of each volume), but an attractive and sound set of the scarce first edition of this standard work. The two volumes are described as: "1.Th. Innere Geschichte der Litteratur.--2.Th. Geschichte der griechischen Poesie." The second volume was published in 1845, nine years after the first appeared in 1836. The bulk of the second volume (with xxiv & 1072 pages) is about twice that of the first volume -- although the present set is bound in two volumes, it is sometimes found divided into three. Bernhardy, who was one of the final survivors of the school of Friedrich August Wolf, lived until 1875, and new editions of this important work were published throughout the nineteenth century. This first edition of the Grundriss der griechischen Litteratur is a landmark in the transformation in classical scholarship effected by the German scholars of the nineteenth century. J. E. Sandys stated that [it] "deserved to be remembered with respect, ... as the first to set a distinctly higher standard of what is meant by the History of Literature." Scarce -- see OCLC: 13088239 (9 locations). ; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
Price:
99.95 USD

Brown, HuntingtonTHE CLASSICAL TRADITION IN ENGLISH LITERATURE: A BIBLIOGRAPHYCambridge Harvard University Press 1935 First Edition Paperback Near Fine 8vo Signed by AuthorAutograph; Harvard Studies And Notes In Philology And Literature, Vol. XVIII. Presentation copy inscribed and initialed by the author on the front wrapper to Mr. Frank Walton (Francis Walton, Director of the Gennadius Library in Athens) OCLC: 20047574; Signed by Author; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
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6.95 USD

Calza, GuidoOSTIA - Historical Guide to the MonumentsMilan Bestetti e Tumminelli 1926 Paperback Very Good+ 16mo 6" - 7" tall 192 pages; Clean and secure in original tan pictorial wrappers printed in red and black. Folding map at rear, illustrated with photographs. Very nice condition. Ostia Antica is a large archeological site that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, but due to silting the site now lies inland a few kilometers. Though still known for the fine preservation of its buildings, frescoes and mosaics, the site was plundered by Baroque architects for marble and other materials for the palazzi they built in Rome.
Price:
19.95 USD

Clement, Paul A. ; and Margaret McVeagh ThorneFROM THE WEST CEMETERY AT ISTHMIAAthens American School of Classical Studies 1974 First Edition Thus Stiff Wrappers Near Fine 4to Signed by AuthorAutograph; 401-411, 7 plates pages; Stiff tan wrappers. Offprint HESPERIA, Volume XLIII, No. 4, October-December 1974. 7 pages of b&w illustrations Inscribed by the author on front wrapper -- "Cordially, Paul"; Signed by Author; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
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10.95 USD

Curle, A. OSIR GEORGE MACDONALDLondon Humphrey Milford Amen House 1941 First Edition Thus Stiff Wrappers Very Good 8vo 21 pages; A memorial tribute From the Proceedings of the British Academy. Volume XXVI. Printed by John Johnson at the University Press, Oxford. OCLC: 9473737 Sir George Macdonald (b. Elgin 30 January 1862; d. 9 August Edinburgh 1940) was an eminent archaeologist and numismatist who studied the building of the Antonine wall. ; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
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9.95 USD

De Vere, Sir Stephen E.ODES OF HORACELondon Walter Scott 1888 Red Leather Very Good 16mo 6" - 7" tall The Canterbury Poets; lxv, 172 pages; Former owner's name on ffep, otherwise clean and tight in full red leather binding with five raised bands and gilt lettering at spine, interior gilt dentelles, all edges gilt. A bit rubbed at hinges and corners. An attractive palm-size book. OCLC: 70500711; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
Price:
14.95 USD

Dow, SterlingA FAMILY OF SCULPTORS FROM TYREAthens American School of Classical Studies 1941 First Edition Thus Stiff Wrappers Near Fine 4to 351-360 pages; Offprint in stiff tan wrappers from HESPERIA, Volume X, No. 4, October-December 1941. Numerous b&w illustrations. Crease in front wrapper.; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
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10.95 USD

Dow, SterlingTHE AIGALEOS-PARNES WALLAthens American School of Classical Studies 1942 First Edition Thus Stiff Wrappers Very Good 4to 193-211 pages; Offprint in stiff tan wrappers from HESPERIA, Volume XI, No. 2, April-June 1942. Numerous b&w illustrations. Crease in front wrapper.; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
Price:
10.95 USD

Dow, Sterling ; and Frieda UpsonTHE FOOT OF SARAPISAthens American School of Classical Studies 1944 First Edition Thus Stiff wrappers Fine 4to 58-77 pages; Offprint in stiff tan wrappers from HESPERIA, Volume XIII, No. 1, January-March 1944. Numerous b&w illustrations.; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
Price:
10.95 USD

Eklin, SalomonInstrumenta Graecorum Rustica ex Hesiodo illustrata adprob. ampl. ord. philos. in reg. academ. Upsal. praeside mag. Johanne Flodero ... pro gradu publico examini tradit Salomon EklinUpsaliæ [Uppsala, Sweden] apud Joh. Edman 1779 First Edition Softcover Very Good- Small 4to [2], 20 & [1, engraved plate] pages; Instrumenta Graecorum rustica ex Hesiodo illustrata, adprob. ampl. ord. philos. in reg. academ. Upsal. praeside mag. Johanne Flodero ... pro gradu publico examini tradit Salomon Eklin, stip. reg. Wexionia-Smolandus, in audit. Gustav. maj. d. V. Maji MDCCLXXIX. Horis ante meridiem solitis. Small 4to. A rare dissertation, stiched and sewn as issued, never bound. With the engraved plate depicting Greek farm implements, with a printed legend recording names [in Greek letters] for 11 parts of these tools. Faint circular stain to the front cover, minor scrappyness to the uncut edges -- with trimming to the lower part of the gutter margin of the plate, to enable this leaf, slighlty larger than the text, to be folded. This disseration was defended by Salomon Eklin [1756-1803]. The thesis advisor was Johan Floderus [1721-1789], who spent most of his life at the University at Uppsala. Floderus was first a student at Uppsala in 1738, became Master of Arts there in 1743, he was appointed in 1752 to associate professor in Greek literature. Five years later he was promoted to lecturer in 1762 and to full professor in Greek. He was appointed in the year of this academic thesis, 1779, Vicar of Old Uppsala , and was named in 1786 as a member of the Academy of Letters. Several Library catalogues list him, mistakenly, as the author of this thesis; Swedish Wikipedia states that he "Presided" over 153 academic dissertations. Interestingly, RISM, the "Répertoire international des sources musicales" suggests that Salomon Eklin was also a Swedish composer of music. OCLC lists only one location [see OCLC Number: 249958845 -- copy at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin]. COPAC locates only the British Library copy. There appear to be four copies in Swedish institutions, and a copy at Helsinki University. While OCLC suggests that there are none in the U.S., Harvard's Houghton Library has a copy in a bound volume of 38 dissertations.
Price:
99.95 USD

Genthe, ArnoldMoonlight Miraculously Restores the Propylaea [ Halftone Photographic Print ]New York Fortune 1932 Print Very Good 8vo This 1932 halftone print of the Propylaea in Athens measures approximately 11 x 14 inches; image size 8 x 11 inches. The photograph is credited to Arnold Genthe at the lower left corner with a caption at the bottom of the page which reads: "Moonlight miraculously restores the Propylaea." extracted from "Athens - The Eye of Greece" in Fortune, January 1932.
Price:
14.95 USD

Griffo, Pietro ; and Leonard Von MattGELA - THE ANCIENT GREEKS IN SICILYGreenwich New York Graphic Society 1968 First Edition Hardcover Fine in Very Good+ dust jacket Folio 223 pages; Illustrated with more than 150 plates, 56 in color. Very fine photographs by Leonard von Matt (color photographs tipped-in). Intended for the general reader, the traveler, and also the specialist inthings Greek and Sicilian. TABLE OF CONTENTS: (1) The Background, (2) Before the Greeks, (3) The Foundation and Beginnings, (4) Hellenization of the Interior, (5) The Founding of Akragas, (6) Towards the East Coast, (7) Gelon, (8) Religion - Sanctuaries, Deitites, Cults, (9) Artistic Development and Ties with Greece, (10) From the Congress of Gela to Timoleon, and (11) From Agathokles to the Present Day. ; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
Price:
19.95 USD

Hardie, JamesTHE PRINCIPLES OF THE LATIN GRAMMAR explained in a manner suited to the capacity of beginners : with notes and observations calculated for those who have made proficiency in the classicsThe second edition, corrected and amended.New York Samuel Campbell 1794 Second Edition Hardcover Very Good 12mo 7" - 7½" tall 168 pages; Scarce 18th century Latin Grammar by James Hardie (1758 - 1826). Evans 27088. Former owner's name on title page - William Brattle, otherwise clean and tight in an attractive contemporary American sheepskin binding with gilt ruling at spine, leather has shallow cracking along spine, fain tide mark on rear endpaper. Quite nice condition for a school book from the time of George Washington. The original owner William Brattle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts was a Lieutenant of the Massachusetts militia who participated in the Battle of Bennington in which a revolutionary force of 2,000 Americans, primarily composed of New Hampshire and Massachusetts militiamen, led by General John Stark, and reinforced by men led by Colonel Seth Warner and members of the Green Mountain Boys, decisively defeated a detachment of General John Burgoyne's army led by Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum, and supported by additional men under Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann. ; Signed by Notable Personage, Unrelated; Experience the pleasure of reading and appreciating this actual printed item. It has its own physical history that imbues it with a character lacking in ephemeral electronic renderings.
Price:
124.95 USD

Heeren, Arnold Hermann LudwigGeschichte des Studiums der classischen Litteratur seit dem Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften Mit einer Einleitung welche die Geschichte der Classiker im Mittelalter enthältGöttingen Johann Georg Rosenbusch (Band 2: Johann Friedrich Röwer) 1797, 1801 First Edition; First Printing Hardcover Very Good+ 8vo xiv, 308; viii, 311 pages; Contemporary brown half calf over pattern-printed paper-covered boards, five raised bands on the spine, gilt-lettered labels in tan and light blue, plain endpapers, edges decoratively stained red. Two volumes bound in one. These volumes form part of a larger series: Geschichte der Künste und Wissenschaften seit der Wiederherstellung derselben bis an das Ende des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Von einer Gesellschaft gelehrter Männer ausgearbeitet. Of which these volumes form the fourth division -- [Vierte Abtheilung. Philologie. I. Geschichte des Studiums der griechischen und römischen Litteratur. Bände 1 und 2)]. The esteemed German historian Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren was born October 25, 1760 in Arbergen; and died March 6, 1842 in Göttingen. He studied at the University in Göttingen -- history, literature and philosophy, and after travels in France, Italy and the Netherlands, he was appointed in 1787, a professor of philosophy, and then of history, at Göttingen. He had a modern point of view of history -- through an examination of economics, constitutions, and financial systems, rather than a rote repetition of facts, Heeren was able to throw new light on the development of the Old World. He is now considered the pioneer in the movement for the economic interpretation of history. This is a nearly ideal copy of one of his best known works. The condition is splendid, apart from faint stains to the corners of the endpapers (a transfer from the folded under leather used in making the spine and corners of this handsome binding). First edition. OCLC Number: 10217716.
Price:
174.95 USD

Horace ; Quintus Horatius Flaccus ; translated by Tommaso GargalloataaaLe Opere di Orazio Flacco Recate in versi italiani da Tommaso GargalloComo figli di Carlantonio Ostinelli 1827 First Edition Thus Hardcover Very Good+ 16mo 304; 429 pages; Two volumes, bound in contemporary half vellum over pattern-printed paper covered boards, flat spines with leather labels in red and black, lettered in gilt. Bindings display just a touch of light soiling, but a handsome, tight and clean set. This charming 1827 first edition of Tommaso Gargallo's esteemed translation of Horace from Latin into modern Italian has a most interesting provenance: it was the property of two generations of one of the leading families of the American Abolitionist movement -- the son and grandson of Samuel J. May. There are ownership signatures in each volume: "Joseph May / Roma / June 1898." Joseph May, the son of the Rev. Samuel Joseph May and Lucretia Flagg Coffin May, was born in Boston on January 21, 1836. By that time, his father, Samuel J. May, had achieved a position among the religious and intellectual leaders of New England. He played an unintended but significant role in American literature by extending friendship to Bronson Alcott, with whom he shared an interest in eduational reform. May invited this charming young philosopher for an extended visit to his household in Brooklyn, Connecticut -- where May introduced Alcott to his sister Abigail. Bronson married Abigail May in 1830 -- Louisa May Alcott, the author of 'Little Women,' was their daughter -- (and thus, a first cousin to Joseph May, the owner of these two volumes). Samuel J. May and his family provided support to his sister and her Alcott children for many years, as Bronson Alcott proved to be a deficient provider of necessities for his family, charming and interesting as he may have been in other respects. About the time of the fateful May-Alcott union, the Rev. May had a personal transformation when he encountered William Lloyd Garrison. May always had a tendency to find slavery wrong and regretable, but upon hearing Garrison speak, he became a convert to the radical point of view -- that slavery must be abolished immediately. He worked with Garrison for two difficult years to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society. May's freedom from racial prejudice was rare in his time, even among abolitionists. "It is our own prejudice against the color of these poor people that makes us consent to the tremendous wrongs they are suffering," he preached to his congregatation in Brooklyn -- (were, in the face of opposition, he had introduced interracial seating in his church). The struggle against slavery became more and more intense. On October 21, 1835, the same day that Garrison was dragged through Boston by anti-abolitionist rioters, May was mobbed as he attempted to speak in Montpelier, Vermont. After the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, May's abolitionist activity increased. He personally transported escaped slaves along the underground railroad. To confirm that living conditions were satisfactory for those sent north, he toured settlements in Canada. By that time, Samuel J. May had moved his pulpit to the Church of the Messiah in Syracuse, New York. In that position, his longest ministry, he came to understand the plight of women as not entirely dis-similar to that of blacks. In his seminal address, the 'Rights and Condition of Women,' 1846, he asked why "half of the people have a right to govern the whole." He became a familiar figure in the conventions and committees of the early women's rights movement, working closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. (May and Susan B. Anthony were burned together in effigy in 1861, by an angry mob which managed to shut down a major anti-slavery rally at which the pair were scheduled to speak). All this activity and strife caused a break in May's health. Well-to-do supporters in Boston paid for May to take an extended trip in Europe during 1858-59. This vacation afforded him opportunities to view the Vatican during Holy Week, and also to speak from English pulpits. He was accompanied to Europe by his son Joseph, who was taking a break in his studies after receiving his AB from Harvard in 1857. Following several years in Europe, Joseph May entered Harvard Divinity School and graduated in 1865. After a decade serving in his first two appointments -- (the First Unitarian Church in Yonkers, N.Y. and then the First Religious Society of Newburyport, Massachusetts) -- In January 1876, Joseph May became minister of the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, which he served for 25 years. After Joseph May's retirement, he became pastor emeritus until his death on January 19, 1918. He was a strong supporter of education for African Americans throughout his life. In the same year he acquired this handsome set of Horace in Rome, Joseph published a memorial to his famous father on what would have been the great abolitionist's 100 birthday: ["Samuel Joseph May: a Memorial Study." Boston, G.H. Ellis, 1898]. Joseph May presented these volumes to his son, William Roper May, the following year. There are ink inscriptions on each front free-endpaper: "Wm Roper May / aet XXV / January 16, 1899 / With dearest love of J. M." Even in the naming of this grandson of Samuel J. May, Joseph May demonstrated his family's long-term and continuing connection with the emancipation, education and welfare of slaves and former slaves. Wm. Roper May, to whom this set was presented, gets his middle name in honor of Moses Roper, an escaped slave who met Samuel J. May along with Garrison and other leading abolitionists in Boston in the 1830's. Roper's autobiographical account became one of the earliest and most popular of the so-called "Slave Narratives" [with ten editions published between 1836 and the Emancipation]. Laid in to this set by Joseph May is a silver-print photographic portrait of the aged Pope Leo XIII in post card form. On the recto, at the bottom of the image, May has neatly written the inscription in ink: "A lover of Horace." -- on the verso of this photographic card, May has inscribed his reasons: "I have put this card into my Horace, with the same inscription. Two or three days before his death, his valet found him reading -- the Bible, he thought, of course! But it was Horace. That touch of human nature - & of culture - makes me like him." The writing on this card resembles Joseph May's... but Pope Leo XIII died in July of 1903 at age 93 -- at which time this set was presumably the property of William Roper May. In any case, a touching token of respect for a Catholic Pope from one of the great familes of American Unitarianism, written by Joseph May, who had first seen the Vatican at his own father's side, forty years before.
Price:
399.99 USD